Lighthouse Horror Podcast - I got a job in the sewers. WE HAVE STRANGE RULES | Scary Stories

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Rule Number 3 is where it starts to get weird... Story from J Campbell Make sure to check out more of their work at u/Erutious    Cover Art from Zack Cy                     Original Post: Whispering Pines Memorial Forest : u/Erutious  Original YouTube link: I got a job in the sewers. WE HAVE STRANGE RULES     For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Merch: lighthousehorror.com  Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Darren Curtis Music - YouTube  Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every week, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

You've all heard stories of what lives in the sewers, right? Of what could possibly survive down there. What could evolve, eating up all the chemicals and trash that we throw away? And what could happen if those things started eating us? I'm a high school dropout. Let's get that right out in the open. I dropped out to help with the bills after dad died when I was 16. My thought process at the time was that I wanted to eat and feed my three siblings more than I wanted to learn how to do algebra. I worked a series of progressively terrible jobs in the four years that followed.

Fast food, retail, day labor. But when a buddy of mine told me the city was hiring maintenance guys, I thought I might be able to do a little better than getting by. Dad had worked maintenance for the county since I was born. Most of them probably still remembered him. He taught me a lot in the 16 years I'd had him. Plumbing, general construction, vehicle maintenance, and a little electrical knowledge to name a small amount. I was sure that I could fill the job requirements, but there was one hurdle that I couldn't cross. Applicants had to be a high school graduate or GED holder.

I sighed, but I figured I'd call anyway. I got nothing to lose. But as luck would have it, I got Mr. Decker on the phone. Now Mr. Decker was someone I'd known since I was tiny. He was as good as my godfather in my parents' eyes. He and Dad had started with the city at the same time. And even after Mr. Decker got promoted, Dad never had any hard feelings about working under him.

Dad always said that he was a good leader, and my dad was glad to be his right-hand man. When Dad died, Mr. Decker had made sure we had groceries for the first few months, and it offered to help in any way he could. He was happy to hear from me, and when he heard about my little problem, he told me to go ahead and fill out an application. He said, he'll see what he can do. Well, it was a week later when he finally called me for an interview. This is just a formality, he said.

as I sat across from him in his office. I know what you can do. You're one of the better qualified applicants, if I'm being honest. I want to hire you, but the only thing that's stopping me is that you haven't got your GED. Ah, I nodded, thanking him for his time as I got up to leave. He put a hand out to stop me,

telling me to let him finish. Wait, wait. I've talked to my boss, he's talked to his boss, and I think we've come to an agreement. You can work here on a probationary period for the next six months. In that six months, you have to get your GED. If you can do that, you can keep the job. Sound fair? Now did relief washing over me?

It did sound fair. When I shook his hand, he told me he was glad to welcome me aboard. And the job was a dream. I was still living at home with mom and my siblings that were too young to work. The pay from the city would get us out of some debt that we were very worried about. Mom was ecstatic when she heard about the job. She was close to sobbing when I told her I was going to use the pay to help her out more. I started researching how I could take my GED test right away.

Surprisingly, there were study guides and practice tests online, but it did make me realize how many gaps there were in my knowledge. I needed to study, but I had work to think about too. Eventually, I settled into a pretty comfortable routine of working during the day and studying after I got off at six. The work I quickly found out was something I was really good at. I was working with another of Dad's old friends, a guy named Nolan. Nolan was looking forward to retirement and told me he had great faith in me passing the test.

But what Mr. Decker hadn't told me was that Nolan's position was in the city sewer system, or as Nolan called it, the understinch. It's like a whole other world down there, kid. You gotta be careful, but I think you'll do just fine. Just remember to follow the rules and you'll be just fine. So Nolan had rules for when you were in the understunch, and you had better follow them or he'd let you know about it. Rule one was easy.

Always wear your industrial boots when in the sewer. There's stuff down there. You don't want any shoes, kid. The state provides you boots, so wear them, all right? Rule two was to always bring a light. I don't care if you leave your whole two belt in the car. If you're in the under stench, you better have a light. The sewers in this town, they're old.

Some parts date back to the early 1900. The deeper you get, the darker it goes. I suggest you get a headlamp like the. This one, he said, pointing at his as he nearly blinded me with it. But, you know, any kind of light will do. I don't care if you flick your bick, just have a light when you go into the sewer, you hear me? And that was where the rules got a little weird. Rule three, always listen for the scraping.

It was about three days into my first week. Nolan and I were down in the sewers checking walls for strain. But first, I should probably explain the sewers in my town. The town's sewer system is a hodgepodge of new and old masonry. There are parts of the sewer where a seven-foot-tall person could stand upright comfortably, and other places where Nolan and I had to crawl to get through. The city had built the new sewers right on top of the old ones, In some places, the old parts had begun to collapse and take the newer sections with them.

That was what we were looking for. Nolan had a system that would take him on a complete circuit of the sewers once every two weeks. We were moving through one of the old systems. We were crouching as we used our headlamps to check for cracks and soft areas. And that was when I saw markings on the concrete. They looked like fingernail marks, as if something had dragged its nails across it. When I asked Nolan about them, he told me we would talk about it once we got topside. I wanted to tell him to just go ahead and spill it, but he put up a hand before I could speak.

There was something in the tunnel ahead. It sounded like something being dragged over the concrete. something that sounded like fingernails. This way, Nolan half whispered. He led me down another tunnel, away from the scraping sound. And I want to say that what happened next was all in my head. But for a second there, I thought I heard the scraping move faster as we hurried away from it. It was only a few minutes later that we surfaced near the old theater on Fourth and Lex.

We'll get some lunch first and come back later, he said. It should be gone by then. What should? I asked, as he put the cap back on the manhole and headed for a bistro nearby. When you'd been crawling through a sewer all day, your choices always seem to be outdoor eating or drive-through. I don't know, Nolan said, as we took a seat on the patio. I've never seen it, and neither had the guy before me. He said the scraping is a sound that's best avoided, and I always have. It leaves behind the scrape marks, the long lines on the concrete that you saw.

My old mentor also said that whatever it is. It also leaves the tunnels a little cleaner. Well, after he told me that, I was always careful to listen for the the scraping. But even with that, I almost became comfortable down in the dark tunnels beneath the city after only a few weeks on the job. You never quite got used to the smell, but you could come to terms with it. I started using a respirator that I wore when in the sewer, got a few pairs of water-resistant jumpsuits, and upgraded my boots to something a little more durable. By the end of the first month, Nolan was pretty impressed with my progress.

But I still hadn't learned all the secrets of the understench, like Rule 4, which was a pretty important one. We were rooting through the tunnels, looking for damage one day. Suddenly, Nolan stuck a hand out and caught me before I could fall into a pit. My lamp hadn't illuminated the spot properly. And no wonder, the whole seemed to be oozing some kind of moving sludge. It was midnight black, and the longer I watched it, the more sure I was that it was jiggling. The light of my headlamp never penetrated it, and as it wiggled, I felt a sudden urge

to touch it. I had my hand reaching out before I even realized. what I was doing. I know, Nolan said, keeping his arm across my chest. But don't get near it. It lures you in, and nobody knows what happens after that. Best not to tempt fate, he said. We skirted around the black goo, making sure I wasn't looking at it for too long.

I began to realize how lucky I'd been. The more of them I saw in the dark passages. I asked Nolan about them, and he said they'd been down here for as long as he could remember. His old mentor had actually lost a hand to one when he fell against a puddle of it. His hand just slipped right in, and if I hadn't caught him before he fell in, he probably would have lost a lot more than a hand, he said. It took his whole hand? I asked.

Not quite sure I believed it. Yep, to the wrist. The wound was clean like the hand had never been there at all. He told the bosses that something in the water had gotten a hold of him, but I think they knew. He retired not long after, and I was more careful after his loss. So that was rule four. Avoid the black puddles.

Nolan only had five rules, it seemed, but the fifth was the one he valued the most. We didn't climb down holes that led into the old sewers, and we didn't go any deeper than two floors past street level. I was halfway through my second month. When we came across a big hole that went past the usual depth, it spiraled into the earth like a gaping maw. I haven't seen anything like it before. So I started hooking up a rope to investigate when Nolan shook his head at me. He was radioing for a mixer truck, the kind we used for patchwork. He glanced down at the hole and told them to make it double. We'll fix it no matter how deep it goes and proceed on, he told me. As he hooked the radio back on his belt, I nodded, but Nolan wasn't finished teaching

just yet. We don't go on them holes, not into the old section. There's dangerous stuff down there. And if you get lost, then you might not ever find the light again, he said. We didn't have to wait long before the truck pulled up to the nearest manhole. We dragged the fill hose down, and let it down the tunnels until we were back at the pit. It hung over the edge as we pumped it full of concrete. It took a while, too. It was a really deep hole, deeper than I would have thought. But eventually, we did fill it up until it was level with the floor. We tugged on the nozzles to let them know to pull them up. We then set up some cones around the area until it dries. And we moved on, our round only half done. But I now knew better than to climb in holes that went

too deep. Nolan's lessons, however, would soon come to an end. I got to work one morning when Mr. Decker called me into his office. It had only been three months since I was hired, and I was worried I might have done something wrong. I was scheduled to take my GED test at the end of the month, and I was pretty confident I was going to pass. I was looking forward to coming off probation early.

But if I'd mess something up, then I could kiss that goodbye." Mr. Decker looked worried. When I asked what I'd done, he said it wasn't me, it was Nolan. Well, Nolan's sick, kid. Not like regular sick either. He's got some super aggressive strain of pneumonia, and he's probably going to be out for a few weeks. He said.

I was speechless. I wondered if this was something that would force Nolan to retire early. But Mr. Decker assured me he'll be back soon. Nolan's had trouble with his lungs on and off since he turned 45. It's just something he's had to learn to deal with. But the good news is he said the doctors have put him on two weeks of bed rest and a hefty dose of steroids. So my question is,

Do you feel like you can do Nolan's job while he's out?" I thought about it, not wanting to bite off more than I could chew. I remembered Nolan's rules, as long as I follow them, he said, I'll be fine. So I finally nodded my head. I believed I could, and Mr. Decker was glad to hear it. He told me that once I passed my GED, I would be Nolan's apprentice until he was he retired. And then he promised I would be the man for sewer repairs for the department. And that excited me. What he was saying would essentially make me a department head,

and that probably meant a pay raise and a boost in benefits. I set off that day with high hopes. The first couple of days were business as usual. I did hear the scraping once or twice, But I didn't see the dark sludge or any deep holes. I always carried my light, and I always wore my proper footwear when I was in the understench. I was careful, aware of how it was just me down there now. But for a little while, it was okay. It was Friday, the fifth day of me being alone under the city. I got a call about a potential clog in one of the lines.

I sighed, and I went down to see what I was dealing with. I knew the good times just couldn't last. Unplugging a clog is my least favorite thing about the job. Depending on the clog, it could take hours to get it out, the whole time standing next to an unholy stinking mass of waste, oil, and debris. I grabbed the pole we kept in the back of the truck for the whole time. these situations. We'd like to call it the harpoon. Well, turns out it was a bunch of debris from a storm the night before. It happened a lot. You never knew what was going to wash into the

sewers. But as I got into position with my pole, I felt something that had me worried. The ground I had been standing on gave a loud, creaking groan, and I wondered if it would hold. I tested. set the ground a bit more, making sure it wouldn't crumble under me. Like I said, holes aren't uncommon with how old these sewers are. I stomped my boots a few times until I was satisfied it'd be okay. After that, I turned my attention to trying to unclog the blockage. It appeared to be an old tarp that had gotten wrapped in something. The work wasn't easy. I would work something loose, only to feel it gets stuck in the remains of the tarp. I was sweating. My work shirt was just sticking to me,

and as I worked the blockage loose, I didn't like the way the ground shifted beneath me. I considered moving, but that was when I felt some of the tarp rip loose and drift farther off. I chopped at it with the sharp end of the harpoon, and as it began to break up, I was happy with the progress. It started floating away in pieces, the remains catching in the current. And that was when I felt my left foot fall through the floor. I was falling before I ever knew it, and when I landed, I whacked my head on the concrete and blacked out. When I woke up, I was in complete darkness.

There was no light anywhere. The hole I'd fallen in through had to be somewhere above me, but I couldn't begin to tell you where I was. I fumbled around from my flashlight in the dark, and all the while I could hear the loud and aggressive skitter of nails across concrete. It was closer than I'd ever heard it, and I was terrified that I might finally get a look at what made that noise. The idea of what might lie at the other end of those nails wasn't something I wanted to imagine.

And it was getting closer, louder. I wanted to run, but I needed a light. When I finally found the flashlight, my hands were shaking bad enough. I almost couldn't switch it on. And what it revealed, it didn't really make me feel any better. I was in a pit of some kind. The tunnels were made of earth instead of concrete. I pointed the light up, but the opening looked more like a tunnel instead of a hole.

I had fallen through the floor and down some sort of shoot, like Alice down the rabbit hole. And now I was in some sort of underground chamber. Suddenly, Nolan telling me not to climb into holes I couldn't see the bottom of, it made a lot more sense. I reached for my phone to call for help. Service would be hit or miss down here, but apparently it wasn't going to be an issue. The phone I pulled out was broken in half. I slid it back into my pocket, losing hope.

I swept the flashlight around and spotted a single tunnel heading deep. into the earth. I didn't have much of a choice. The tunnel was about seven feet high, but it was barely wide enough for me to move comfortably. I had to flatten my body against the walls and shimmy through in some parts. I wondered how it'd been made, or what they were for. As I looked closer at the walls, I saw something familiar. The dirt walls had long as I had long, scratches along the sides, like nails that had scraped along behind whatever had dug the tunnel. I could hear that scraping now, though it seemed to be getting further away. The farther I went, the more nervous I was that the flashlight would fail me, and I'd be in the

dark. It had a 12-hour charge on it, and I'd only used it for a few hours the day before. I wished I had thought to wear my headlamp, but it was sitting in my truck. And the whole time, I could still hear that damn scratching noise. The longer I'm down here, the harder it became to know where it was coming from. Sometimes, I was sure it was coming from behind me. Other times, it seemed like it was just ahead of me in the darkness. And one time, I don't know how, but it sounded like it was coming from inside the wall next to me. I told myself it was just acoustics, that the sound was bouncing weirdly off the walls as they pressed close against me.

I told myself I was just working myself up. I tried to control my breathing. I couldn't take big gulps of air anymore as the walls present. pressed against me. But I still had to keep moving. So I inched my way forward, trying my damnedest to ignore the scratching. Eventually, I stumbled out of the tunnel, falling through to a chamber. In front of me was a crossroads. There were paths going right, left, and straight ahead. I listened, trying to pick out where the scraping noise was coming from. I decided on the tunnel right in front of me. I had taken only a single step. When I heard a second scraping sound

coming from the left, it was loud, a little louder than the one I was hearing before. I hung back in the tunnel I'd just come out of to get a look at whatever was making the noise. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wanted to know what I was up against if I had to fight my way out. Hunkered against that dirt wall, the harpoon clutched tight in my hand. I thought I was ready for anything. But as whatever it was scratched its way from the next tunnel, I saw that I was not remotely prepared for what made these burrows.

I peaked out, almost dropping my harpoon. The creature was long and tall, almost too big to fit in the tunnel. It dragged itself along on several long arms tipped with chipped and jagged nails. It was pale, the color of bleached flesh. Its body was wrinkled and dirty with a huge mouth at one end. The mouth was open, like a demented sea monster. The jagged teeth were full of grit and mud. It had a small, sharp nose and a pair of beady eyes like a mole.

But what sickened me the most was the way it moved. Its body deflated like a balloon as it squeezed through. The creature would twist, moving its nails, teeth, muscles around as it moved. It took several minutes for it to make its way completely through the passage. The sides of its body had smaller arms that helped it crawl along. They too had jagged, dirty nails at their tips, and as it passed through the crossroads, I saw it pause just long enough to leave a small little bit of the small. puddle of a familiar dark liquid. It was the stuff we'd been finding in the sewers. And as the

monster finally passed, I went over and took a closer look at the black puddle. As I watched it in the beam of my light, I could already see it moving outward, drinking up the dirt as it spread out. I thought back to Nolan's story of how it swallowed up a man's hand. I shuddered before ducking through the tunnel I'd wanted to enter, wishing that I'd never seen that thing. I followed the tunnel, hearing the scraping nails as I moved through. I found myself hoping that I would never encounter what made those sounds. I came out to more chambers, more crossroads, more burrows made by those things. I found more of the dark puddles, and I tried my best to avoid them, but some of them were huge.

The way they grew, it made me think they were alive somehow, as weird as that sounds. And then as I rounded a corner, I felt my feet slip a little. I reached out to brace myself against the wall, but I found nothing. I put my harpoon on the ground, and thankfully it held, because as I looked down, I saw what I had stopped myself from falling into. My flashlight showed me a drop that would have killed me. The huge cavern below was lit with these small fluorescent mushrooms, giving me a glimpse of the things that squirmed under me.

The creature I'd seen before, it was a small one. The things below, they were huge, 12, 16, 20 feet high, I think. And as they moved, they would sometimes run into one another, their sharp claws ripping skin and taking off huge chunks of flesh. I counted ten, then twenty, then more than fifty of them in that pit. I quietly kept following the tunnel, very happy I still had my flashlight, and when I saw a side passage that sloped upward, I was so happy I threw my fist in the air. That had to be one of their burrows they used to get in the sewers.

As I followed it up, the dirt became less muddy and more coarse. When brick began to line the walls, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. And when I came out into the sewer and I found a ladder leading to the surface, I was so happy to feel light on my face. I found I was 12 blocks from the county office. As I entered, Mr. Decker's secretary jumped up. the side of me. She said that Mr. Decker had a group of guys down in the sewers looking for me. I had been missing for hours, and they couldn't reach me by phone. They were worried

I got hurt or worse down there. I held up the remains of my phone and explained what had happened. She called Mr. Decker, who sounded very relieved I'd been found. He and about about ten guys from the office came out of the sewers a few minutes later. He offered to take me to the hospital. I told him I was fine, but I did want to go to the hospital. I wanted to visit Nolan. He'd been placed in the short stay wing after running a fever a few days before. Mr. Decker nodded as he led me to his car.

You look like you might need a bath for us, too. a mess, son," he said sympathetically. Not long after, I was sitting in a chair beside Nolan's bed, explaining to him and Mr. Decker what I'd seen. Decker looked at Nolan, but the old man only shrugged. If the kid says that's what he saw, then I believe him. He's got no reason to lie about it. And it explains a lot of weirdness down in the time.

I guess in this case we can forgive the rule about not climbing into holes too deep, Nolan said with a wink. Nolan came back a week and a half later. I was glad for the company after two and a half weeks of being alone down there. A few weeks after that, I came to work with my GED, now officially a high school graduate. They took me out to celebrate that night, and after all the pizza and beer, Nolan told me that he was proud of me. It would be a pain to teach another new guy the rules, he said with a laugh.

So yeah, I still took the job. I still go down in the sewers. The money was too good to pass up. But now, I'm more careful to look out for soft spots. and I never forget the rules. I have never seen one of those creatures again since that day in the deep tunnels. And I hope I never do.